There are a variety of wiper arms on which wiper blades are provided as original equipment. These various wiper arms have hooks, pins, or other configurations which may connect to the wiper blade with or without connectors. These various configurations have created a problem in the replacement market because wiper blade providers are required to have multiple wiper blade configurations to accommodate all of the existing wiper arms. It is therefore advantageous to have attachment structures that can accommodate a host of arms to reduce the complexity and cost associated with this problem.
The need to attach replacement windshield wiper blades to multiple arms has been addressed to some degree. For example, windshield wiper blades have been designed to work with various hook-type wiper arms having different sizes. Connectors may also be configured to receive either a pin-type arm or a hook arm. While these connectors may increase the usefulness of a given windshield wiper such that it can be used with different wiper arm types, the connectors are often expensive and have a complicated structure that is difficult and time-consuming to manufacture
Thus, there is a need for inexpensive connectors that are capable of securing a windshield wiper blade to a variety of arms. In particular, it would be desirable to have a connector that can be attached to a wiper blade that will allow the wiper blade to be locked to a wide variety of wiper arms despite their various locking mechanisms. It would also be desirable to have a windshield wiper connector that can be fabricated or molded as a single piece at low-cost. The prior art fails to provide a low-cost windshield wiper connector capable of attachment to a wide variety of windshield wiper arms, much less for the purpose of reducing the amounts of inventory parts required to supply a vehicle market that uses a wide variety of windshield wiper arm types.